The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1887-09-17
TIE COuNTERFEITER.
TALK WITH BRocKwAY, THE FA-
NOUS MAKER OF "ouEER."

TALK WITH BRocKwAY, THE FA-
NOUS MAKER OF "ouEER."
Successful Imitation of tho Famous '8l
housekeeping the Elaborate Lathe
Work on tho Greenback-Counterfe
Foreign NIoncys-l,ank Notes.
Among the men who have been classctl as
great criminals no one has had wider fame
than William f. Brockway. He has been
very rich man, he is n very clever one, his
years approach 20, he is just ending short
sentence in Sing Sing Is he great crookl
do not know. have been accustomed to
meet him in a journalistic way at intervals
reaching over ten years, and once asked
him if he was great rascal. Ho said no.
am not bound to believe him, nor are you;
but never knew him to lie in anything, and
am bound to believe that he does not re-
gard himself us bad man.
Brockway is credited with the counterfeit-
ing Of the famous 81 bonds. 1t was not his
biggest job hy amy MEANS but it was success
full They We're bonds issued by the govern
ment early i'll 1851, and the treasury depart
ment redeemed 10 end of the bogus ones be-
fore accident betrayed them. These bonds
were not registered, and the plates from
which they We're taken were never found.
Indeed, the supposition almost takes the
power of positive statement that the original
plates were used with the guilty knowledge of
then official who lives now in great splentor
i'll London and is frequent guest in Marlboro
house and at SandrinShani. However that
may he, the fact remains that the United
States treasury did buy bogus bonds under
the administration of Salmon p. Chase, and
these bonds, if not counterfeit, were illegal.
WON'T TELL. 1T ALL.
1t is something more than can reasonably
he expected that Brockway will tell all lie
knows, and even il he did lie would, as is
customary with his guild hint at so much un-
revealed that his interviewer could never
know when he had pumped him dry For
example, he says that the white line which
cncircles tho seal of scroll work, called the
counter, on the national currency is named as
one of the actual projections against counter
feiting--as matter of fact the skillful coun-
terfeitcr has no difficulty in printing that line
white. asked him how they did it, but ho
said there We're enough who didn't know how
to make the knowledge too valuable for news
paper columns. asked him for his opinion
as an expert of the security of tho paper cur
rency.
There are 10 experts" he said; "there aro
good Judges of paper money. used to bo Il
fair judge, but 10 expert can tell the differ
cnce hrtwren two lines mn,lc by ruling ma
chine. The srometrical lathe work which is
the great security on bank work is mechanic
nll ,,t,t, 1rtl,
$4,000. Witnesses, called aS experts, have
sworn TINT this work can't he initiated, but
there are dozen men in New York who can
make so perfect tacopy of it that lie whom
the original can't tell it, and the imitator
need not be an artist either But that is not
great danger to paper money The differ
ent styles of chemical engraving are now
almost familiar knowledge, and it is we'll
known that l'y such processes the elaborate
lathe work OH the grccnlncl can he copied us
accurately as manuscript can be copied photo
graphically, and when printed in carbon or
colored inks nre about equal to the original
INITIATING SCROLL WORK.
"Tle fact is n man cannot mako that which
II less able man cannot counterfeit, although
he could not create the original For exam
pie, if you will examine the scroll cut by the
geonctrical lathe you will SEQ in the seal thnt
some eight parts are all duplicates of the
other that in these divisions there is simply n
repetition of tho same forms and interscc.
tionS The imitator i'll cutting his plato
would certainly never go to tho trouble of
cutting complete circle He would make
one of the divisions and then repeat it in the
chemical printing. The most difficult thing
to make in counterfeiting are the likcncsses
Tho infinite variety of human expression
which can he creatci by u line, tho faintcst
shadow. the mercst deviation in the angle Of
arurve of the lip the sot of the nostrils, are
so far from arbitrary that one can only lie
copied with infinite pains"
"What is an approximate figure represent
ing the amount Of foreign moneys counter
feted here!'
ut Is enormous. have the authority of
the Brazilian minister for the statement that
S20o,0o0,n00 Of countcrfcit money is circu-
lated in Brazil. Money for the South Amer
ican countries has all been literally counter
feted, and even Bank of England notes. But
it is n curious fact thnt tho co,nterfeited
money Of foreign countries cmanating from
here is nearly exclusively of those who have
come here to have their money mntle
"Bank note connfrrfeiting was most prcvn
lent during the reign of the state banks, but
tho boys had to hurry up on the bank would
fail before they could get their stuff out. /
was caught twice in that way and had no re-
dress, rs the banks had no assets. The coun-
terfeits then were generally poor and there
was seldom an attempt Mt imitation. When
nn imitation was attempted by an amateur,
who had picked up engraving, he would So
lect his note oil it to make it Transparent,
l. l..
needle using microscopy he would pricl,
through the line, on the note and then follow
the dots with Il graver, which would repro
ducc tho lines. OF course the exquisite etch-
ing of the landscape, the beautiful lines of
the portraits and the delicate ruling were lost,
but there We're very few of the dear public
who could tell hawk from u han,lsaw."-
New York Cor. Philadelphia Times